IU Impact: No More Waiting for Water

Vrinda Azad is the former Sarpanch – or Chief – of her village, one of the most challenging positions that a woman, a dalit and a social worker can find herself in. She was elected Village Chief after more than a decade as an activist. As Sarpanch, her primary struggle was to bring electricity to her village, a quest that lasted three years. Electricity did come. Today her children study in the bright light of a bulb. But unable to balance the pressures of home and office, Vrinda resigned from office and continued her social work as a part of…

The 300 residents of Jayramnagar had been facing a severe shortage of water. There was only one functional hand pump in the village and the residents wanted more. When the village council and the headman did nothing for the community, the people put their faith in Community Correspondent Vrinda Aazad and asked her to do what she could. She made a video documenting the problems people were facing and managed to get her community the taps they had been waiting for for 8 months.

The people of Jayramnagar had been dependant on a hand pump to get their daily supply of water for as long as they could remember. But as time moved on and the population began to grow they all felt the need for a greater supply of water.

In 2012 they were promised a new pipeline along with 2 taps to make life easier. The pipeline came, the taps were installed and for a while it looked like development had arrived in the village. Two months later, it all stopped. They went back to the hand pump and went back to queuing for hours.

“There used to be long queues where we’d wait for hours. Very often tensions would run high and fights would break out if someone skipped the line or spilt water. The only way to avoid this was to walk to the next village 2 km away,” says Vrinda.

“We repeatedly asked the Village headman to ask the authorities to repair the taps. He would send us away every time after assuring us that it would get done. Tired of waiting, I decided to make a video on the issue. All the women were more than willing to speak about the inconvenience caused to them while they waited to get water.”

Once the video was made, Vrinda went to the Public Health Engineering Department to show the officials the footage.

“I didn’t have a laptop so I took my flipcam and showed them what I had filmed. Almost immediately they were on board. They thanked me for bringing the matter to their notice. After that it was only a matter of waiting for 3 months and the taps were fixed. ” Vrinda tells us.

Vrinda joined IndiaUnheard around 6 months ago and this is her first impact video. We asked her how she felt the process worked.

“I feel very happy that I have been able to this for my community. While I was visiting the officers at the PHE office, they told me how issues like this often don’t come to their notice. For instance, we had told our headman but clearly the chain broke there and the message wasn’t passed on. Even if it was and no action was taken, my presence in that office with the evidence I had, helped move things along. The village has had a good supply of water for around four months now,” says Vrinda sounding very pleased.

Vrinda would like all of you to call the PHE Officer Sanjay Singh on 09424248000 and thank him for installing the taps.